Ex-Federal Minister Sentenced To 16 Years In Prison In Hajj Corruption Case

Former federal minister for religious affairs, Hamid Saeed Kazmi was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Friday by a special court.

Included in the sentence is Director General Hajj Rao Shakeel who was sentenced to 40 years and former additional secretary of religious affairs, Aftab Ahmed, also sentenced to 16 years in prison.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), after the court hearing, took the accused into custody. They have, however, given the right to appeal.

Charges of corruption were laid against Kazmi, especially while renting residential buildings for Pakistani pilgrims in Saudi Arabia and causing a major loss of billions of rupees to the national exchequer.

A case was lodged against him and he was arrested on March 15, 2011.

Based on FIA’s investigations, the former minister let go of 7,000 pilgrims and instead hired accommodation for government officials.

According to him, “The officials did not stay in the accommodation hired in Saudi Arabia, which caused a loss of Rs200 million to the national exchequer.”

The FIA revealed that Kazmi’s overall income was Rs95,000 of which his salary accounted for Rs80,000 as the minister. Additionally, he earned Rs15,000 from his madrassa in Multan. He also has 314 canals of land in Rahim Yar Khan in his name and manages foreign accounts.

Bail was granted him in a Rawalpindi court on August 27, 2012. Nonetheless, FIA investigators and prosecutors filed a request with the special judge in the Central Rawalpindi Court in February 2013.

FIA Investigators argued that they had new evidence, including bank accounts against Kazmi.

Due to the critical nature of the collected evidence and financial discrepancies, the FIA Director, Hussain Asghar demanded Kazmi’s non-bailable arrest.

Previous hearings have found other allegations being claimed, especially Imran Ahmed Shah, Pakistan Muslim League-N MNA alleging that Abdul Qadir Gilani, the son of Former Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had “smuggled” a bulletproof Land Cruiser from Dubai in 2009 characterising part of the financial discrepancies.

Qadir Gilani has refused to cooperate with the agency and investigators.

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Posted by modousarr on Jun 3 2016. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.